My name is Alice Fong and I am a naturopathic physician. However, I am much more than just a doctor. I use an integrative approach to health and wellbeing. Good health, in my opinion, is not just a lack of physical symptoms. Having love and happiness for yourself and for your life are important factors. I look at the psychological and spiritual components also. I view my role as a wellness coach; someone who educates, inspires, motivates, and encourages people to live life to their fullest potential.

I strongly believe that the mind-body connection is an essential component of health. Mental and emotional wellbeing can contribute to one’s physical health, and vice versa. The focus of my practice is stress management and self-love. I help people develop more awareness of their minds and bodies to give them the power to heal themselves. My goal is to help you be the best that you can be at whatever stage of healing you are at. In addition, I want to help you accept that this is a process which comes with challenges and frustrations that may get in way of being able to love yourself. In facing those challenges however, can we grow, develop, and heal ourselves. Self-healing doesn’t occur overnight, it is a lifelong journey.

Stress is a major component of nearly everyone’s life, but it is often disregarded or not handled as well as it could be. Numerous studies have shown that prolonged stress can have a negative impact on person’s physical health and mental and emotional wellbeing. Signs can include, but are not limited to: fatigue, depression, anxiety, pain, decreased immune function, high blood pressure, and insomnia. Perhaps we cannot always change the stressors that come up in our lives, but we CAN change the way we respond to stress. And my job is to show you how you can handle your stress better using a wide variety of tools, such as: teaching you to train your body to relax more naturally when you need (using biofeedback), or talking you into a relaxed peaceful state and giving you the motivation and confidence to achieve your goals (using hypnotherapy), or physically relieving and/or eliminating the stress your body carries (using massage). There IS a different way you can live, let me show you how.

How my journey as a naturopath began:I wanted to do naturopathic medicine before I even knew that naturopathic medicine existed. When I was teenager, I had a strong interest in plants and I cultivated my own garden of herbs and vegetables in my parents backyard. In the summer of 2002, I attended an herb festival in my hometown and met my first naturopathic doctor. I was overly excited to hear about what he did, and when I went home that day, I eagerly researched everything I could on naturopathic medicine and found out about Bastyr University, one of the leading naturopathic medical schools in research. From that moment on, at the tender age of 17, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

I was incredibly fortunate to have figured out my path as a healer early on because it helped me pave the path to becoming a doctor. I knew I wanted to study naturopathic medicine even before I knew what my major would be in college. Luckily, I choose a major that complemented my goals - psychology. I believe that health of the mind and being able to understand people is a critical component of healthcare. The mind-body-spirit connection is a part of holistic medicine. At Bastyr, I was able to further expand my knowledge on this process with counseling and biofeedback training. I also studied hypnotherapy with MaryLee Labay, which complemented my counseling interests. In addition, I attended a few meditation retreats for my own self-growth and healing process, as well as being able to incorporate into my future medical practice.

After attaining my undergraduate degree in psychology and completing my pre-med requirements, I went on to receive my massage license and found the value of physical medicine. In 2008, I started my naturopathic medical program which involved hundreds of hours in the classroom, studying, working on assignments and papers, clinical training, and working with patients. This journey has been almost 10 years in the making and it did involve a significant amount of blood, sweat and tears (the blood mostly being from my second year of med school, when we learned how to do blood draws and run tests on each other...for an entire year). Looking back now, at the hardships and challenges I’ve had to endure over the years to get where I am, I would not change a thing. I love what I do and where I am in my life. I am excited to help people get better and help support them on their healing journeys.

More about Alice:I was born and raised in Northern California. I grew up as a competitive swimmer for 8 years and swam throughout high school (MVP all 4 years). Other interests I had growing up included gardening, journalism and photography. I started learning partner dancing my senior year of high school and since then dance has become a major passion of mine. I started with swing dancing, and went on to learn many other forms of dance such as salsa, ballroom and tango, as well as non-partner dances such as hip hop, jazz, and modern. I’m always enthusiastic about learning new forms of dance, and just like in life and in medicine, there is always more to learn. I was president and instructor for my swing dance club at my undergraduate college, and I was the founder and president of the dance club here at Bastyr University. Other hobbies I’ve accumulated over the years include yoga, cooking, turbo kickboxing, and doing the occasional triathlon. I will without a doubt acquire more interests and hobbies over the years ahead. I will always be a student of life...eager to learn more. As my physiology professor would say, “Life is cumulative.”